Firefighters turn cops, aid in arrests

They follow robbery suspects after seeing men exit store with hoods on

May 17, 2008|By Joel Marino Staff Writer

DANIA BEACH — A group of firefighters helped nab a crew of alleged robbers Friday by following the suspects through traffic and down a highway while aboard their fire engine.

The firefighters eventually lost track of the getaway car, but authorities arrested the suspects when they crashed their vehicle and ran into a residential neighborhood. One of the men was caught after he tried to hide in a woman's home, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.

"It was kind of a weird day," said Lt. Dean Meadows, one of the firefighters.

Meadows and two other Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue firefighters were returning from a canceled fire call when the truck's driver noticed something strange on the 900 block of South State Road 7 shortly after 1:30 p.m.: two men exiting a MetroPCS store with hoods and clothes covering their faces.

One of the men slipped what appeared to be a gun into his waistband before hopping into a white SUV, Meadows said.

"Then they drove out of the parking lot and pulled up next to us, looking nonchalant," he said. "They stopped at the red light like everybody else."

The firefighters followed the SUV for at least a mile before it made an illegal U-turn at a red light at Oaks Road.

Not wanting to lose track of the suspects, the Fire Rescue crew switched on their sirens, made the same U-turn and gave chase as the SUV sped up an eastbound ramp of Interstate 595.

The firefighters radioed a dispatcher as they followed the SUV. They lost sight of the vehicle as it drove onto Interstate 95 near Griffin Road.

"Our trucks weren't meant for high-speed chases," Meadows said.

The SUV eventually got off the highway on Stirling Road but didn't get very far - it crashed into a fence a mile west of I-95, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.

One of the suspects ran into a home on the 2500 block of Southwest 58th Manor in Dania Beach, surprising a woman who lived there, authorities said. She ran out of the house and called 911.

Both men were eventually caught. Their identities were not immediately released. Authorities did confirm that a Plantation MetroPCS store was robbed.

"Had the firefighters not been alert to what was going on and had their sixth sense not been triggered, we wouldn't have these dangerous armed men in custody," Jachles said.

Joel Marino can be reached at jmarino@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4552.